


trust thou my constancy

by AlexSeanchai



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxious Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, F/M, Identity Reveal, Injury, Minor Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, and it was planned to be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:14:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27213259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: Wouldn't things be so much easier if Chat Noir were cooperative? If he had as much reason to want to make this world-changing wish as Hawkmoth does? (It's almost a pity Chat Noirisn'tAdrien. If he were, telling him the truth about Émilie might be enough. Surely it would be enough.) Ladybug too, of course, but Gabriel knows of no weak points of Ladybug's—excepting of course Chat Noir (who once cooperative might be persuaded to be her opponent, but obviously that's not yet) and, thanks to Volpina, Adrien. And Gabriel is not willing to risk Adrien to this extent.But thanks to Papa-Garou, hedoesknow Marinette is special to Chat Noir.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37
Collections: Good Intentions: Abandoned and Unfinished WIPs





	trust thou my constancy

**Author's Note:**

> Again, the outline's a mess and I've absconded with a bunch of it in bits for other projects.

Adrien's spine itches.

If he were Chat Noir right now, he would know exactly what it meant: akuma attempting sneak attack at eight o'clock. Or whatever. One of the many marvelous things about the tail and the pointy ears is how much _more_ they tell him than he can learn from his comparatively pitiful average-human senses. But he doesn't need that advantage right now. There's nothing behind him but a few stray schoolmates, none closer than a few meters. He doesn't have to check. He _doesn't_.

(He was in such a good mood, too.)

"Dude, you okay?" asks Nino. "You keep twitching."

Adrien looks toward him and shrugs. "Nervous, I guess?"

Nino blinks at him. "It's coffee with our girlfriends, not—actually I am not going to jinx that," he decides, which tells Adrien the rest of the sentence was something like _an akuma trap_. "Or, y'know, _my_ girlfriend, _your_ just a _good_ friend who coincidentally looks dreamy in black."

Adrien will take that akuma now, thanks. "It's not that," Adrien mutters. "Just…you know that one Tumblr post? The boss battle music's playing but where's the boss?" He _really_ wishes he could mask up right now. Not _quite_ enough to risk Ladybug's wrath, or the coffee outing, but…

"Your old man's still dragging his heels on that professional evaluation?" Nino shakes his head. "Man, akuma me had the right idea. Shitty aim, but the right—hey, there's Alya!"

Alya is indeed jogging along the sidewalk from the school. "Sorry we're late!" she says cheerfully! "We—wait, where's Marinette?" She frowns at the empty space behind her.

Adrien, content to drop that topic, returns his attention to the school entrance. Marinette's running out now, with all her usual grace and charm, which sounds less rude if he thinks it with friendly sarcasm than with scare quot—

—He turns around, looking for whatever the hell it is at eight o'clock that's spiking his anxiety so badly. A black SUV is speeding up the street; he whips his head around to watch it flying past, jumping the curb—

_Marinette!_

She's sprawled unmoving on the earth. "I want the number of that truck!" Adrien snarls as the SUV veers back to the pavement, and Alya, phone out, bolts after it. He and Nino are already rushing to Marinette's side: there's some blood, and her right shin has a slight angle it shouldn't, but those aren't the bits that worry him.

Is she breathing.

Is her heart beating.

Will this change.

And _what is wrong with this picture_.

Nino is dialing emergency services and checking Marinette over. He's the trained emergency medical technician; Adrien holds Marinette's hand—her pulse beats beneath his fingertips—and stays out of Nino's way.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary about anything right now—he's watching for anything odd, even as he orders gawking passersby to get lost, even as he tells Lila to save the attitude for later and _go away_. If there _is_ an akuma here, it will make itself known somehow. (And then Chat Noir can hit it and feel better, and Ladybug will heal Marinette, and Adrien will get coffee with his friends, and everything will be _okay_. In about that order.)

And really, it doesn't make sense if there's not. The SUV threw her easily fifteen meters; it was moving pretty fast at impact, and of course its greater mass for the transferred amount of momentum would give her a greater velocity, but he doesn't think it was moving 'throw her fifteen meters' worth of fast. Marinette is lying in a divot deeper than she is that wasn't there before. Adrien will never post about this on [puntastically named physics-of-Miraculous blog], because it's _Marinette_ (and he doubts there's video to analyze), but he _will_ run the numbers later, because he _knows_ Miraculous physics when he sees it in action.

Alya jogs back up and drops to one knee beside Nino. "They got away," she reports. "I got decent video, though. Clear shot of the license plate—maybe it'll be legible in freeze-frame."

Adrien nods and tries to smile. "Did anything look weird? Like akuma weird, maybe?"

Alya gives him a funny look; she glances down at Marinette, who's squeezing Adrien's hand, and it clears up. "No," she says.

And akuma weird is something the Ladyblogger has trained herself to notice; Adrien trusts her assessment. And he must admit Hawkmoth doesn't work like this anyway. Hawkmoth _likes_ being flashy and dramatic. It's strategic: if an akuma doesn't get Ladybug's attention, she won't come deal with it, which keeps her Miraculous out of reach. The only exception Adrien can think of is Vanisher, and that just proves the point: Sabrina stayed akumatized for _days_ , without advancing Hawkmoth's goals that they know of (having an invisible minion to follow Ladybug on Heroes' Day doesn't count, probably), because Ladybug and Chat Noir didn't notice!

Not an akuma, then, no matter how much he might want it to be. Not a problem Chat Noir can go _hit_. And not a problem Ladybug can miraculously solve.

[Marinette says something like "Tell Chat," but won't say what. Tells Adrien to go fetch her purse, which went flying. When he gets back, Nino has per her instruction taken off her earrings. She gets her ID stuff and phone out of the purse, puts the earrings in it, and tells Adrien not to let go of the purse. Someone, probably Adrien after prompting, calls Tom & Sabine; Alya volunteers herself and Nino, once Marinette's ambulance is heading hospital-wards, to help in the bakery in order to free up Sabine to take Adrien to the hospital so they can both stay with Marinette.]

**Author's Note:**

> which is setup for [worst revealfic saddest cat son](https://thescuttlebugg.tumblr.com/post/153808751691/alright-ive-run-into-some-revealfic-that-has) in which Marinette is planning on Chat Noir's temporary partner being secretly Adrien…  
> 
> 
> [My comment policy](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/612627045048008704/as-a-fic-writer-i-need-every-reader-to-know): tl;dr happy comments make me happy. So do thinky comments, of course, but there exist jerks who think only thinky comments are worth anyone leaving.
> 
> Find me on [Dreamwidth](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/) and [Tumblr](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/).


End file.
